White House Kitchen

From Simple Cooks to Gourmet Chefs

In the early life of the White House, the African American staff and other servants who lived at the President’s House most often had rooms in the basement. Open at ground level on the south, the basement (referred to as the ground floor today) has windows on the north facing a deep areaway that is below grade. The kitchen and pantry together are about 22 feet by 27 1/2 feet.

The ground floor's vaulted Central Hall once accessed a great kitchen 40 feet long with large fireplaces at each end, a family kitchen, an oval servants hall, the steward’s quarters, storage and work rooms, and the servants’ bedrooms.

An inventory for the year 1826, during John Quincy Adams’ administration, records the typical furniture used by servants in the first half of the 19th century. For example, the cook slept on a cot, and had a pine wardrobe and a pine table; other servants’ rooms were similar, with cots and mattresses and "low post" bedsteads, blankets, and sheets; sometimes they had benches, chairs, and tables. Often the furniture was described as "worn out" or "in want of repair."

Despite mold, poor plumbing, and rats, the White House Kitchen continued to feed its residents and guests in an elegant manner through to the modern era. Today, the kitchen is clean and well-maintained. With five full-time chefs, the White House kitchen is able to serve dinner to as many as 140 guests and hors d'oeuvres to more than 1,000.

Every president and first lady is different. Some, like Mamie Eisenhower, are intimately involved in choosing the menu for dinners while others, like Pat Nixon, want the chef to surprise them. After the first large Nixon dinner, Chef Henry Haller went to Chief Usher JB West. "The president came into the kitchen tonight and told me it was delicious. Can you imagine? The president himself. That never happened before."

More Images

The first lady reviews dinner preparations in 2009, looking west (Getty)